Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a derog. name for a black person.

1821		J.F. Cooper ‘The Spy’ Novel Newspaper (1842) I 154/2: ‘Sure a nagur has as much sowl as white,’ said Betty.
1833		P. Pry Reminiscences, Mishaps and Observations 23: Thunderan nagers, says he, (the moment he saw me,) if it isn’t the varmint of a resurrection-man.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries & Miseries of N.Y. I 63: Was it where you married the she nager?
1880		F. Dumont Rival Barber Shops 7: Get out, ye dirty naygurs, or I’ll give you a bit of my mind.
1898		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley in Peace and War 23: He’ll be settin’ up there undher a pa’m-three with naygurs fannin’ him.
1905		J.G. Cruickshank Negro Humour 13: Sammy resumes his seat growling ‘Na-guh! son-oer—’.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 50: A fact that th’ naygurs had known f’r a long time.
1913		A. Irvine My Lady of the Chimney Corner 183: Stop yer palaver an’ let’s haave a story ov th’ war wi’ the naygars in Egypt.
1913		H. De Lisser Jane’s Career (1971) 55: Mrs Mason commanded her to cease her ‘nager noise’ immediately.
1990		in Lalla & D’Costa Lang. in Exile 48: Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts abound with spelling variants [...] for JC [Jamaican creole] equivalents to English ‘negro’. [...] nega, neger, negar, negur, neegar, neaga, nigger, nigga, niggar, niggah, naga, naygar, naygur.

2. (Aus.) a Chinese person.

1898

E. Dyson ‘A Golden Shanty’ in Below and On Top 🌐 ‘Me not steal ‘em blick – odder feller; he hide ’em.’ [...] ‘Ye loi, ye screw-faced nayger!’.

3. (W.I.) a derog. term for a fellow black person.

1858		Trinidad Sentinel 8 Apr. n.p.: By Garra, da nagar read en paper lek so me hin nuise lang time.
1927		H. Thomas West Indian Policeman 365: You have a very good suit of tweed clothes on, but who mek de cloth: buckra, else naygur?
1939		A. Durie One Jamaica Gal 27: Wha’ a nager gal lak you wan’ wi’ such mincing ways?
1942		L. Bennett ‘Obeh Win De War’ in Jamaica Dialect Verses 5: Him have a pot-a-ile, / An’ every naygah-man him ketch / Gwin go een deh fe bwile. [...] De fus black man weh Hitla kill, / De war wi’ haffe dun, / Far nayga duppy neida ’fraid / fe submarine nar gun.
1943		L. Bennett ‘Leff-Out’ in Jam. Humour 19: De dutty, ugly, frill mout nayga / Brut noh got noh heart.
1951		‘Sammy Dead Oh!’ in T. Murray Folk Songs of Jamaica 23: Nayga kean bear fe see Nayga flourish.
1980		(con. 1950s) M. Thelwell Harder They Come 93: They danced together in the steady almost monotonous Nagah shuffle.
1981		N. Farki Countryman Karl Black 48: The fowl-friggin, bald-head nayga down the road too thief.
1990		L. Goodison Baby Mother and King of Swords 15: Old nyaga was washing them mouth pan me more than ever.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 36: Naygah (derog.) person, often used with ‘dutty’ or ol’: u. me no business wid ol’ naygah.
2003		N. Hopkinson Salt Roads 9: Tales flow from Hopping John mouth the way shit flows from a duck’s behind [...] Always talking my business. Nayga-run-to-backra somethimes is in such a hurry to tell tales.